[4]The Merchant of Venice, Act. IV, Scene I.
[5]St. Matthew, vi:14.
[6]Matthew, vi:19–20.
[7]Spoken to D’Aguesseau by his wife when he went to confront his enraged King. Quoted by Wendell Phillips in his address on “Idols.”
[8]St. Matthew, vii:7.
CHAPTER III
CONSTRUCTION
Spoken matter is a speech only when it possesses three divisions: an opening, a body, and a conclusion. Without possessing these three divisions it may be a talk, but it is not a speech. This can be best explained by the author quoting from one of his previous works:[1]
“Every speech, no matter what its length or what its subject, should possess three parts: an opening or statement, a body or argument, a conclusion or appeal. The opening should contain a statement of the facts to be presented, or the points upon which the argument is to be made; the body should be given over to a presentation of the facts, a narration of the story, a description of the scene, or an argument of the cause; and the conclusion should be devoted to summing up of the facts, an application of the story or the scene, or a deduction from the argument on the points.
“The opening may contain as many statements as the speaker desires, but he must make sure to argue upon and drive home in the body of the speech all that he mentions in the opening. Every statement in the opening must be like a plank in a platform, and all such planks, or statements, must be fastened together properly in the argument, otherwise there will be gaps in the platform, or statement, through which the speaker’s argument is liable to fall to failure.”